Morning journal and courier., 1887-02-23
"L1terary Artn in France.


In literature and in art, what remains is
execution, not subjects; the glory of an ar
tist is STYLE and the Goucourts have invent
ed a style of singular force and originality;
and with this style they have influenced all
modern French literature that has any artis-
tic pretensions at all. Thanks to it, Jules
and Edmond de Goncourt will remain
marked personalities. l do not say they
will become great classics; they will be con-
sidered rather as the most curious and deli
cate observers of modern French civiliza-
ton, and their praise will be formulated in
sentence of their own: ''If it be true that
languages have their period of decadence, it
is better to be Lucan than to be the last
nameless imitator of Virgil" And it is this
respect of style, this sense of the dignity of
the literary art, which forms the bond of
union between the friends and rivals who
meet on Sunday afternoons in the Grenier
de Goncourt, and whose names are Alphonse
Daudet Guy de Maunassant, Paul Bourget,
the impeccable sonneteer J. NJ. de Heredia,
Emile Zola sometimes, Huysmans, Henne-
uuin, Ceard and a dozen other novelists,
critics and journalists whose fame is still
young. 1t is a common belief that these
writer's belong to what is called the "natu-
ralist" school. In reality there is no school
at all. Listen to Alphonse Daudet, as he
sits on the divan as close to the fire posi-
BILE, and pours forth between the puffs of his
cigar, wit, criticism aspirations and theories
in that soft purring voice which still clings
to its southern accent. Daudet is talking of
those who love not art, and to whom you
may give the name of Ohnet, Cherbuliez OF
Malot, as you please. "Our strength, mon
vieuX Goncourt," says Daudet, "lies in our
conviction and in our sincerity. We abomi
10 md Of in
| method, which proceeds by observation of
nature, selection and composition. We start
| from the sensation and not from the idea.
Words concern us in so far we desire to
| find and use the that best renders
| impression, but we are not the slaves of
words, nor we desperate polishers of
| phrases as poor Flaubert was. La phrase
est jolie certes, mais la sensatiodl Take
Flaubert for instance: he never observed af-
ter he was twenty; Teurgueneff never OBJ
served after he left Russia. The minds of
these two men, once stocked with impress
sions, remained closed to the outward world
for the rest of their lives. What we seek,
and what the young men around us are seek
ing, is the vivid pictural impression, the ar
tistic Interpretation of what we see in real
life; as for the naoralizing, we leave that to
the reader; the facts are before him; the
events contain their own morality; is there
any morality in life itself? No. Cest
| I transcribe nearly as possible in Dau-
| det's own words this theory of fiction, be-
| cause it is the theory which is truly infuen-
tial at present, and that too on the stage as
well as in the novel. Daudet, in spite of
his weak health, is preparing play as we'll
as new novel; and Edmond de Goneourt,
walking up and down the 'grenier,," ex-
| plains with ample gestures and voice vi
brating with eitldsiasru how he intefltis TO
/ dramatize "Germinie Lacerteux," how he
would like to write piece without single
''bookish phrase in it, simply dialogue,
conversation and good eonversation; but
above all how he would like to make play
| out of ''La Faustin'' if he could only get a
detraquee like Sarah Bernhardt to play the
title role. And why nots We will see when
she comes back from her American tour.
| ''Ah, oui,n murmurs Daudet, ''le treatre
c'est la forme desirable; but, from the vaga-
bond who opens the carriage door up to the
manager himself, what an unhealthy, paltry
and corrupting world that of the stage is
Every time come out from rehearsal
| feel as if I needed dozen baths to cleanse
| myself"